Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Community Rehabilitation Companies in delivering resettlement plans.

The latest performance statistics can be found in the ‘Community Performance Quarterly Management Information Release: update to September 2018’ on Gov.uk at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-september-2018

These figures show that CRC performance against target for completion of resettlement plans was at 95.5% for this period.

The Government has acted decisively in response to issues with CRC performance by bringing forward the end of CRC contracts and consulting on a range of proposals to better integrate probation provision. The contract changes we agreed with CRCs last year include £22m per year in additional funding for Through The Gate services, which will mean approximately 500 more staff working with offenders in prison after April 2019.

We have launched a consultation on proposals to introduce more effective future delivery arrangements. We want to learn from what has worked well and what hasn’t and better integrate public, private and third sector providers in future arrangements. Our changes will put in place a more stable and resilient probation system, which works effectively to protect the public and tackle reoffending.